A Week Of...???

[englanddg]

Introduction​

Welp, I've just cleaned out my fridge and my pantry, and I've decided to try something new.

As some of you may know, I like food. I mean, who doesn't, right? I also like to cook and menu plan. So, I've decided over the next few weeks to submit myself to a series of radical food lifestyle experiments, and you all get to come along for the ride.

Each week I will post an outline for the "challenge" I have given myself (and if you have an idea for one, feel free to post it!), my shopping list, the costs, and any carryover ingredients.

Then, as the week progresses, I will share my results and pictures with you all. Recipes and cooking tips, critiques, how I feel on the whole, daily body metrics (weight, hydration, BMI), a detailed breakdown of the nutrition analysis, and my general thoughts. Every self-challenge will include breakfast, lunch and dinner. 3 squares a day.

Throughout the week, I'll post pictures, reviews and recipes about the particular diet and dishes. There is no point to this thread outside of bringing you all along on the journey, and discussing the experience. I hope you enjoy!

Sometimes you'll laugh (at my expense), sometimes you'll cry (at the foods I'll experience), but in all I think this will be a fun exercise.

If you have anything to add, feel free! I'd love to have discussions regarding the culinary journey, and if you start one on your own, feel free to add it in! Also, if you have a challenge you'd like me to attempt (within healthy reason), consider me your guinea pig.

Week 1 - Wait...Watchers?​

Ah, the Frozen Food section. Filled with delights that rarely turn out like the package pictures!

As a side note, I got the idea for this particular challenge as a fun thing to try from Mike Jeavons at TGWTG.com and Youtube. He lived for a week off of "Iceland" frozen meals. Check out his youtube channel for lots of amusing videos, and his experiance (free plug).

So, moving on. For this first week I'm going to live mostly off of the "Smart Ones" brand of frozen foods from Weight Watchers with a few other items from the grocery shelves to accompany the meals. This diet is supplemented with milk, orange juice, a box of frozen treats for desserts, a 12 pack of canned Coke, a daily multivitamin, and two bottles of sweet tea.

Lets begin, shall we?



The Shopping List
1 box (2 Sandwiches) English Muffin Turkey Sausage Sandwiches
1 box (2 Quesadillas) Breakfast Quesadillas
1 box Cheesy Scramble
1 box Ham and Cheese Scramble
1 box (2 Sandwiches) English Muffin Canadian Style Turkey Bacon Sandwiches
1 box (2 Quesadillas) Chicken Quesadilla
1 box Salisbury Steak
1 box Orange Sesame Chicken
1 box Homestyle Turkey Breast with Stuffing
1 box Ravioli Florentine
1 box Fettuccini Alfredo
1 box Steak Fajitas
1 box (2 Burgers) Mini Cheeseburger
1 box Chicken Enchiladas Suiza (sounds fancy!)
1 box Angel Hair Marinara
1 box Chicken Fajitas
1 box Traditional Lasagna with Meat Sauce
1 box Mini Rigatoni with Vodka Cream Sauce
1 box Sante Fe Style Rice and Beans
1 20 oz bottle of Nestea Pomegranate Passionfruit
1 20 oz bottle of Lipton Lemon Iced Tea
1 dozen 12 oz cans of Coke Classic
1/2 gallon of Nonfat store-brand milk
1/2 gallon of from concentrate Vitamin D and Calcium enriched store-brand Orange Juice
1 box (8 bars) of PhillySwirl brand Fruit Dip frozen Fruit Bars dipped in Greek Yogurt
1 bottle of Centrum Men's Vitamins

Cost Breakdown

For the entire week, this menu cost $56.84 in shopping expense from the list above, without coupons or tax. The tax was $1.28.

At the end of the menu, I will have the following left over.

8 oz of Milk
8 oz of Orange Juice
1 English Muffin with Canadian Bacon
1 Chicken Quesadilla
1 Fruit Dip Frozen Bar
1 Mini Cheeseburger
193 Centrum

This brings the real cost, with tax and unused items to $52.57, with a daily average of $7.51.

So there we are! I start in the morning.

Cheers!

 

[JenniferS]

Cool. I'm along for the ride.

 

[Bob]

Holy crap, that's a lot of frozen food!

 

[Cesar R M]

Holy crap, that's a lot of frozen food!

I suddenly imagine the owner of the store: "Let it goooooooooooooo .. let it goooooooooo.." as the frozen food was cheeked out in the cashier.

Also, I hope this isnt unhealthy.. kinda reminds me of the "Supersize me".
The guy ended looking all orangeish due of the grease of McDonalds.

 

[englanddg]

I suddenly imagine the owner of the store: "Let it goooooooooooooo .. let it goooooooooo.." as the frozen food was cheeked out in the cashier.

Also, I hope this isnt unhealthy.. kinda reminds me of the "Supersize me".
The guy ended looking all orangeish due of the grease of McDonalds.

No one noticed at Publix, and I've actually seen lots of people check out with similar "menus" over the years there.

Frozen food is quick, and convenient. Better for you than fast food (theoretically, though I may or may not be planning a future Fast Food challenge), and can be cheap.

The primary purpose of this week's challenge is...how good is the food? And, do I lose any weight (I am not trying to lose weight with this, but many do, and that's what they market them as being able to do)?

Again, I'll start in the morning. Few hours to go before my wonderful breakfast!.

 

[MinnieM123]

No one noticed a Publix, and I've actually seen lots of people check out with similar "menu's" over the years there.

Frozen food is quick, and convenient. Better for you than fast food (theoretically, though I may or may not be planning a future Fast Food challenge), and can be cheap.

The primary purpose of this week's challenge is...how good is the food? And, do I lose any weight (I am not trying to lose weight with this, but many do, and that's what they market them as being able to do)?

Again, I'll start in the morning. Few hours to go before my wonderful breakfast!.

You're always up to something different and interesting to keep us all amused! With the frozen foods, I wonder what the sodium level is, that's my only question about this particular experiment. I'm sure the fat content is low and that's a good thing.

 

[englanddg]

You're always up to something different and interesting to keep us all amused! With the frozen foods, I wonder what the sodium level is, that's my only question about this particular experiment. I'm sure the fat content is low and that's a good thing.

But...it's Weight Watchers, otherwise known as the Kirstie Alley diet!

I can go from this...

To THIS!

Though, I'm not sure how I'll feel about becoming a woman.

We shall see!

 

[englanddg]

Week 1 - Day 1 - Meal 1 - Ham and Cheese Scramble

Well, the morning has come. I feel pretty good. Decent energy. Woke up well this morning. Lets jump into the metrics, shall we?

My weight this morning was 210.5 lbs. My BMI (body fat) is 25.2% (I'm a chubby lubby). My hydration is 54.7%. Just so you all know, I am in my mid 30s and I am 6 foot 2 inches tall.

Off to breakfast!



Ham and Cheese Scramble!

The box says this is a delicate scramble of egg whites and ham on a bed of Ore Ida (tm) roasted potatoes topped with reduced fat cheese.



Mmmmmm...doesn't that look appetizing? 2 minutes in the microwave and it's time to stir.



You know, for my sarcasm a minute ago, this actually doesn't look bad. The eggs are fluffy, the ham that I was concerned about has started to render a bit, and the cheese is well melted. This may not be as horrid as I anticipated!



1 minute more and all done! The eggs shrank a bit, and I can't see the cheese anymore. I sortof wish I hadn't followed the package directions and just stopped at 2 minutes...

One thing I forgot to put on the menu, but is necessary in the morning, is coffee. So, I'll be adding that to breakfasts from now on. Behold, the breakfast of champeens!



The coffee, was coffee. The milk, was milk. The multivitamin, well...yeah, you get the idea. One thing I didn't like was the OJ, which is the from concentrate stuff. Normally I would purchase "fresh squeezed", and I like pulp. But, it was ok, even though it was saccharine sweet.

But, how was the "Ham and Cheese Scramble"? Actually, not bad! The ham was very salty tasting. And, I wish it had more potatoes. I think I only had 3 or 4 rather small bits, and 1 large one, in the entire dish.

The eggs and cheese blended well together, and due to the flavours from the ham chunks, don't really require any extra seasoning, though a few spashes of tobasco wouldn't have hurt. The texture wasn't very bad either, as the ham chunks gave it some body, though a 1/4 of a chopped green pepper or something like that wouldn't have hurt the dish at all.

The potatoes were tasteless and could have been left off the dish for all they mattered.

It was sweeter than I expected, and after tasting the items individually, that's completely from the cure on the ham. Overall, not bad.



Is it as nice as fresh? Well, I've made worse scrambled eggs in my life. I feel sated and not at all like it was too heavy on the stomach. The OJ is going to be something I struggle through the whole week on, it wasn't very good at all. But, on the whole, a nice start to the week!

Meal Metrics​

Ham and Cheese Scramble, 8 oz Non-fat Milk, 8 oz Enriched OJ, 1 Centrum Mens, 1 Coffee (black)

Total Cost - $3.68

All percentages are based off the recommended 2000 calorie Daily Values
Calories - 430
Fat - 14%
Sat Fat - 20%
Cholesterol - 23%
Sodium - 30%
Carb - 18%
Fiber - 9%
Protien - 62%
Vit A - 84%
Vit C - 254%
Calcium - 101%
Iron - 48%
Vit D - 200%​

Meal Grade (purely subjective) - B+​

See you at lunch!

 

[StarWarsGirl]

(weight, hydration, BMI)

I initially read that without the "I"

Well, if this whole diet doesn't work, you can always Blame Meg

 

[englanddg]

Week 1 - Day 1 - Meal 2 - Chicken Quesadilla

Busy day, so a late lunch.



Chicken Quesadilla. The box says it has grilled white chicken meat, cheese, peppers and onions folded into a crispy flour tortilla.

Hrm...it comes with little "crisper" pockets, like a Hot Pocket.



And, the filling is square and resembles a frozen hash brown from McDonalds. I'm not sure what this is going to turn out like.



Two minutes in the microwave produced this. Lots of crusty burned cheese around the edge. But, the center looks allright. Also, not sure what is up with the greasy spots on the flour tortilla, but meh.



But, to be fair, the filling is quite gooey and is very well spiced. I don't really get the "chicken", so they must have diced it up pretty small. But, it's not bad.



One can of Coke Classic, and lunch is served!



Like breakfast, this was sweeter than I expected. There is certainly a lot of sugar in the tortilla. The tortilla shell crisped up fairly well, but otherwise wasn't very good. I can't say it was awful, though. It tasted almost exactly like the tortillas on microwave burritos that you'd get from a gas station.

But, the filling has a good bite to it, without being overly spicy. It certainly does taste like a quesadilla. While this wouldn't be my first choice considering how easy it is to make a fresh quesadilla, I'd still eat it again.

Meal Metrics​

Chicken Cheese Quesadilla, 12 oz Coke Classic

Total Cost - $1.86 ($5.54)

All percentages are based off the recommended 2000 calorie Daily Values.
Daily totals in parenthesis
Calories - 350 (780)
Fat - 10% (24%)
Sat Fat - 13% (33%)
Cholesterol - 5% (28%)
Sodium - 22% (52%)
Carb - 22% (40%)
Fiber - 27% (36%)
Protien - 22% (84%)
Vit A - 0% (84%)
Vit C - 0% (254%)
Calcium - 15% (116%)
Iron - 4% (56%)
Vit D - 0% (200%)​

Meal Grade (purely subjective) - B​

Dinner is next!

 

[MinnieM123]

The portion sizes look a bit smaller than I would have expected; they would be fine for someone like me. However, you're a 6' 2" guy, and I hope you aren't hungry by the each of day, by sticking strictly to these somewhat reduced meal sizes. The food, itself, looks fairly appetizing, once it's cooked. I'm looking forward to the upcoming reviews of each meal!

 

[englanddg]

Week 1 - Day 1 - Meal 3 - Orange Chicken

The first day is almost over! While the Chicken Quesadilla was good, I am starving and ready for dinnah! I love Orange Chicken. In fact, I made it for myself from scratch just last week.



Breaded chicken tenderloins in a zesty sesame orange sauce with vegetables and rice, according to the box.



Time to stir!



Well, it smells pretty good in the house!



Add a bottle of Lipton Lemon Sweet Tea and dinner is served.



And, dinner...was bad. The Lemon Sweet Tea is ok, but I rarely drink it. Making fresh sweet tea is so easy to do, and you can use real sugar instead of HFCS. But, it wasn't terrible tea.

The Orange Chicken, on the other hand, is terrible. I'm not sure where the "sesame" comes from, as I only ran across a few sesame seeds whislt eating. The sauce is overpoweringly sweet and has no heat or spice to it at all. It may as well be maple syrup. The rice has no texture and tastes overcooked. The vegetables are actually pretty good. They consist of julienne sliced red and yellow peppers, and chopped broccoli. Also, the vegetables actually do work well to compliment the sauce. But, they don't add enough texture to save the blandness of the rice.

However, the thing that completely ruins the dish...is the chicken.



There isn't much taste to these at all. The sauce has destroyed the breading, they turn into a coating of sticky mush on the outside of the chicken pieces. But, it gets worse. The inside, the actual meat, is obviously processed chicken. It has no TEXTURE or TASTE!

Honestly, it tastes like they took cheap frozen chicken nuggets and tossed it into the dish. In fact, that's probably EXACTLY what it is.

But, lets move on to brighter pastures. Dessert!



I got these "fruit dips" bars by a brand I've never heard of called Philly Swirl. They are premium fruit bars dipped in a greek yogurt coating. They come in 4 flavors per box. Sunny raspberry, tropical mango, wild blueberry, and so fresh strawberry. My goodness are these little treats awesome!



I ended up choosing strawberry tonight. The only thing I will say, they are much smaller than I expected from the packaging. But, every bite is a wonderful mixture of fruity goodness with the coating adding a texture that brings the whole thing together perfectly.



These will be my desserts for the whole week, and I am VERY excited now!

I would highly recommend picking these up if you happen to see them in your freezer aisle.

Today has been a day of sweet dishes. Much sweeter tastes than I expected. Breakfast was actually pretty tasty, lunch was satisfying, but I just can't get over how bad the Orange Chicken was. The dessert is the only thing that saved this meal from getting a D. It is edible, but it's not enjoyable in any way (outside of the veg, but there isn't enough of that, either).

Meal Metrics​

Orange Sesame Chicken, 20 oz of Lipton Lemon Sweet Tea, 1 Strawberry Greek Fruit Bar

Total Cost - $3.72 ($9.25)

All percentages are based off the recommended 2000 calorie Daily Values.
Daily totals in parenthesis
Calories - 500 (1280)
Fat - 17% (41%)
Sat Fat - 20% (53%)
Cholesterol - 5% (33%)
Sodium - 31% (83%)
Carb - 30% (70%)
Fiber - 12% (48%)
Protein - 24% (108%)
Vit A - 11% (95%)
Vit C - 19% (273%)
Calcium - 7% (123%)
Iron - 4% (60%)
Vit D - 0% (200%)​

Meal Grade (purely subjective) - C-
Daily Grade (purely subjective) - B-​

Well, that's it for Day 1! I'll see you all in the morning with breakfast!

 

[englanddg]

The portion sizes look a bit smaller than I would have expected; they would be fine for someone like me. However, you're a 6' 2" guy, and I hope you aren't hungry by the each of day, by sticking strictly to these somewhat reduced meal sizes. The food, itself, looks fairly appetizing, once it's cooked. I'm looking forward to the upcoming reviews of each meal!

I was worried about that, but so far, it's been rather satisfying...even though the Orange Chicken was pretty darned disappointing!

 

[LAM378]

I could never, ever do this, but I'm all for watching you do it! I've got a few Smart Ones in my freezer but always pasta...never chicken.

 

[JenniferS]

I cannot believe the prices of these Smart Ones!
Up here, I think they range $4-$6 per entree.
I'll take photos next time I'm at the grocery store to confirm.

 

[englanddg]

I cannot believe the prices of these Smart Ones!
Up here, I think they range $4-$6 per entree.
I'll take photos next time I'm at the grocery store to confirm.

Wow. They were the cheapest brand I could find outside of Banquet. But, the Publix (grocery) that I go to only sells a few Banquet meals anymore...not enough for me to build a whole week's menu off of. So, I went with Smart Ones.

Most of the entrees were 1.99. A few were 2.99. The quesadilla came with 2 in the package and cost 2.99, so for the portion I ate today, I used 1.50.

If you want the exact breakdown instead of summaries, I can start posting those as well.

For today...

H&C Scramble - 2.99
8 oz Non-fat Milk - 2.45 / 8 = 0.31
8 oz OJ - 2.59 / 8 = 0.32
Centrum - 11.99 / 200 = 0.06
Chicken Quesadilla - 2.99 / 2 = 1.50
1 can of Coke - 4.34 / 12 = 0.36
Orange Chicken - 1.99
1 bottle Lipton Tea - 1.29
Fruit Dips - 3.49 / 8 = 0.44

I also had around 45 oz of water today.

 

[englanddg]

I could never, ever do this, but I'm all for watching you do it! I've got a few Smart Ones in my freezer but always pasta...never chicken.

Well, hopefully that bodes well for my future. I have quite a few pasta dishes.

 

[englanddg]

I suddenly imagine the owner of the store: "Let it goooooooooooooo .. let it goooooooooo.." as the frozen food was cheeked out in the cashier.

You know, I am slow.

I JUST got your joke... hahahaha

 

[JenniferS]

You know, I am slow.

I JUST got your joke... hahahaha

That's okay - me too.

 

[LAM378]

I cannot believe the prices of these Smart Ones!
Up here, I think they range $4-$6 per entree.

Smart Ones go on sale at least every month here in NJ at Target, 3/$5. I can't imagine paying $4 for one. They're always the cheapest of the Smart Ones/Lean Cuisine/Healthy Choice bunch (not that the others taste any better).

I buy them if I'm not in the mood to think about food or want to eat some portion-controlled dinners for a few days to drop some weight--but I learned real fast to stay away from any that contain meat. It's just rubbery and ugh. I can't imagine subsisting on them for a week. englanddg, you're a brave man!